Leap Day

When the world calls February 29 "leap day" it means you've hit it ... your one in four chance has paid off today! When I think of the word leap, I think of going over something, skipping, or passing it by.

In honor of leap day, here are some things that I wish I could have skipped, or passed by in my life:

• 7th grade
• Best of the Bull ... the second time
• Summer 2001
• Lobster Dave date ... canyon confessional
• Richfield road rash
• A Clockwork Orange ... what's this "top 100 movies" business?
• Lobster Dave date ... three's-a-crowd-cookie-cookoff
• Tool ... should I admit this?
• 05/20/2006
• Lobster Dave ... farewell
• Joe Millionaire
• 9th grade perm

Oh, there are so many more. Happy Leap Day!

Old Pics

Here are some random pictures that I have on my hard-drive from this and that.

First, we have Matt and Charnae hosting their first Murder Mystery dinner. This was the first time that I made dinner for a group of people! I loved it. I bought our outfits - you can tell that Matt really was excited about wearing the tie I picked out. This was probably summer 1997.



This is a picture of three of our guests that night ... Weston, Heather, and Robert. I can't remember who the murderer was! I guess that means we can play it again! I do remember some people eating some hot peppers from my dads garden. They were on the salad as decoration folks! We passed around the milk and bread to ease the pain.



This was our cat Dweezle, who we called Stinky Dweez. He was a cute cat, but he was always farting. We only had him a couple of months. He was really strange and would eat lint, string ... anything laying on the floor. He knocked over a bottle of ibuprofen and ate one. NOT a good thing for your pets people! Keep them far away ....



This is one of my favorite pictures of Matt and his friend Jeff. This was probably fall of 1997. They were fishing at Island Park in Idaho (near Yellowstone). Beautiful!

Secret

Here is your clue to the best kept secret in Midvale, UT:



Yummy!

This fabulous little Indian restaurant has only been open about 6-months. The owners are so nice! They will make your food mild, medium, or hot according to your tastes. They are located about 7200 South and about 750 East ... by Epic and Souper Salad (but, don't go there, go to Ganesh).

I can recommend any of their coconut recipes ... Coconut Lamb, Coconut Shrimp, Coconut Chicken ... but, it's all so good.

Don't be afraid of the Indian food! It's delish!
Give us a call - we'll go with you ...

My House

I found this little tool on a blog that I read. It is so cool and at the same time so creepy!!! Go to Google Maps. Put in your address and click on "Street View" in the bubble that pops up. What do you get? A picture of your house ...



You can even nagitate and take a tour around your neighborhood. Very amazing! Can you even imagine what kind of technology we'll have 10-years from now? I thought that Google Satellite was amazing, but I can't believe the mobility of Street View. WOW!

World Leader Blog

This blog isn't updated a lot, about quarterly, but the idea of a world leader having a blog is very interesting to me!

So, here's one to add to your blog list .... Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: http://www.ahmadinejad.ir/

I found this last fall, and read the updates during his visit to the United States. Very interesting.

Mount Eskel

I loved this book! Don't be fooled be the title. This isn't Cinderella revisited, or Harry Potter for princesses. This is the cutest story on family and friendship ... with a little mystery mixed in. Definitely on my top ten list of favorite books EVER. It took me about 50-pages to get REALLY into the story, but it's so worth it!

De-Junk

Great advice for items that have lost all usefulness, but still hold sentiment: "Take a picture and throw it away!"

As I've been going through old storage bins, I keep repeating this over to myself. It worked very well on:

The dancing flower (circa 1990) that no longer dances:


The finger paint (dry as a bone) and molding clay (hard as a rock) from a Matt&Charnae/Adam&Heather double-date (circa 1996) :


Matt's care package Hershey Kisses (circa 1996) from when we were dating and I was missing him during a 2-week trip to see his brother:


This box hasn't been opened since at least 1998, and would have been thrown out, sentiment or no. They were very disgusting. Has anyone seen Stardust? Remember what happens to Yvaine's hair when it is brought to Wall? That's what happens to 12-year-old Hershey Kisses. Ew.

It's almost spring everyone! The season of de-junking!

Relaxed

Some day he'll stop doing weird things and then I'll stop taking pictures of him!

Benefit ...

of living next door to a bed and breakfast. Isn't this cute?!

"I got hitched!"

Hey Jude!

Thanks Heather for sending this to me! How cute is this little kid!?!?!?

Tagged!

Hi! I've been tagged ... and there are some pretty detailed instructions on this tag. Here are the rules:

• Link to the person that tagged you: sandylovells.blogspot.com
• Post the rules on your blog.
• Share seven random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
• Tag seven random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
• Leave a comment on their blogs so that they know they have been tagged.

So, here I go:

1. My "most embarrassing moment" that I always share when asked is when I fell down the stairs at the Salt Lake Temple after my brother got married. I tumbled all the way down from the top while we were taking family pictures. My nylons were ripped and my knees were skinned. I would call myself accident-prone, but not typically clumsy. This was a clumsy moment.

2. I've never been a real fan of the colors pink and purple. I decorated my room blue and pink when I was in elementary school. Mostly because it matched a blanket my grandmother made for me. And my "decorating" was more blue than pink. I do not currently own any pink clothing. I have more recently become font of pink and brown together, but I like baby blue and brown even more. Purple .... in the last few years I have acquired two items of clothing that are a very deep purple that I like. I don't own any light purple clothing. In fact, I stay away from most pastels or brights because they make me look pasty and sick. Pretty much anything that the girls in the youth choir wear during April conference is out for me!

3. I own a 1964 1/2 Ford Mustang. It was my first car! I bought it in 1996, and thought it was a very cool classic at 32 years old! And now it's 44 years old! Now that things are winding down on the house, I can't wait to pull out the Mustang and get it moving again!

4. This is embarrassing. When I got married, I had never washed a load of laundry! Matt had to show me how. I knew how to sort laundry, hang it, fold it, iron it .... but, I had never physically put it in the washer, put the soap in, and started the cycle.

5. I love to travel so, so, so, so much! Not that I've had a lot of opportunity, but I'm always looking to go somewhere, or planning trips I'll likely never take! The farthest I've ever been from home is Maine. The only country outside of the U.S. I've ever visited is Canada, but I've been there three times! Some of the I would like to do and see outside of the U.S.: Tasmania to see the hordes of penguins come in from the sea during mating season; India and see everything - The Taj Mahal, Manali, I am obsessed with India; and I would love to travel by train through Europe with a backpack and change of clothes, including taking the Eurostar from London to Paris. I could go on and on .... and I keep coming up with new places from watching Globe Trekker! Best show ever! (I keep telling Matt that on our next vacation we're going to listen to the theme song as we drive around. We can walk down on the beach and draw our circle in the sand!)

6. I am a people-watcher. I enjoy sitting back in a group of people and watching them mingle and talk. I like to find a nice corner where I can take it all in, and just sit and watch the show. I take after my dad in that I don't mind having a one-sided conversation where I do none of the talking. I very often would rather listen to other people talk. You'd never guess that from my blog. Actually maybe that's why I enjoy blogging. People don't have to listen to me if they don't want to. You can very non-rudely tune me out at any time!

7. I was on the yearbook staff and the literary staff in high school. Two things I still think would be fun to do as a career (besides travel) would be to do layout editing or to be an author.

Ta-da! Okay, here are the assignments to my blogging buddies. What are your seven random facts?

Kristen: nateandkristennichols.blogspot.com
Rich: richandbeautiful.org/blahg
Liz: I know you've done this one before, so your assignment is to tell us about Cairo!!! theshakespearfamily.blogspot.com
Mark: hurstrehearsed.blogspot.com
Janet: sandstonewritings.blogspot.com

That's the best I can do! I know the rest of you that read this have done this one ... good luck!

Cullen Family

Check out pictures of the Cullen family. Can you guess who's who?



More at http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilight_movie.html

Husbands Unite?

I know quite a few women who blog. Not so many men. Of my blogging female friends, these are the opinions I have heard their husbands have about their blogs:

• "It's dangerous to put information out there for everyone to read."
• "It's vain."
• "It's nonsense."
• "You have a blog?" (exhasperated!)
• "If you blog about me...."

It is hard to explain the lure of blogging, and it seems to be getting stronger and pulling me in more. I explain it to my husband that it's like having a conversations will all your dearest friends at the same time. A conversation that you wouldn't be able to have with each individual friend because it would be extremely time consuming. And when they have a blog and put something out there, it's like they are responding back to me in conversation. And I can't wait for them to talk to me!!!!!!!!

I love knowing what is happening with my friends. My BFF since childhood has a blog. It's one I check most frequently. We see eachother about 5 times a year. We speak on the phone maybe once a year. In the last 6-months I have been able to read her blog weekly!

For people in my neighborhood it's just as much of a gift. I used to see someone weekly at church and say hi. Then I'd go home and tell my husband "so-and-so is very nice". I didn't know why. They just said hi to me. I liked them. The next week they'd say hi again. Repeat.

I discover their blog! I know the funny thing their 2-year-old said about the blender, and about the flat tire on their road trip to Winnemucca. I see them at the grocery store and say "hi - too bad about that flat tire".

So, husbands, I know blogs are strange, maybe vain, possibly dangerous (probably not the best idea to put your SS# and your mother's maiden name on there) ... but, they are very fun and definately more than just a forum for venting, ranting, and raving. They are also the best for posting pictures!

For example, where else would you see a picture of Wilson & Stephanie dressed as Dobby and Professor Trelawney from Harry Potter?

Or a picture of the most relaxing day of my life? Flying a stunt kite at Neptune Beach in Oregon ...

Or my cute niece ...

Random

I kind of had a bad day yesterday. There was just too much happening at work and I'm not quite over my cold. So, I was tired and working in an unorganized frenzy. I'm so grateful there were a few things to help me along my way:

1. I saw a T-shirt that said: "I never finish anyth" (I could relate.)
2. We had a baby shower for a co-worker who was given baby socks that look like Mary Jane shoes. (They made me smile.)
3. A male co-worker apologized for arriving late to the shower. He asked the to-be-mom if she received any gifts without a card. She said no. He said his gift must not have arrived at the party. (He made me laugh.)

Sevier County

Growing up, I spent a lot of time in the Sevier County area of Utah. My dad grew up in Koosharem, Utah and my mom in Richfield, Utah. A couple times a year we would head down there to spend time with aunts, uncles, cousins, and especially my Grandma!

After awhile, my horizons expanded and I started making other friends in Richfield. My Richfield BFF was Jami. Visits to Richfield during 1992 and 1993 involved hanging out at her house a lot! And usually trying to find a way to leave her house and visit other people using transportation such as a four-wheeler or tractor since we didn't have a car!

One of our adventures landed me in the Richfield Hospital emergency room with gravel and rocks embedded in my feet and a lot of road rash. This is a picture of me at a family reunion in July 1992 about12-hours after being in the hospital. You can't see in this picture, but both of my feet are wrapped in white gauze. I spent the entire day in that chair, and was pretty much carried to and from it when we came and went. Don't you love my 90's hair bow? My Guess tank top?



I was pretty excited the other day after a brief internet search (I'm never this lucky) to find Jami's email address! I love the internet! I haven't spoken with her in around 10-years. I'm so excited to find out what she's been doing. HI JAMI!!!!!

Summer family reunions were such a huge part of my yearly ritual growing up. Here are some pictures of me on happier reunion occassions.

December 1978: Only reunion not in the summer...but, we were in St. George. This is one of my favorite pictures of myself, which is why I have it on my blog profile. Look at my fabulous Cindy Crawford type mole. Oooo-la-la! It goes wonderfully with my pink punch mustache.


July 1984: My cousin Jannie and I in Salina, Utah.


July 1988: My cousins Jamie and Tammy and I at "Bob's Cabin" on "Mary's Nipple" east of Salina, Utah. Let me state right now that I didn't make up these names! That's really what they called them.


July 1991: Me and my nephew Justin in Castlerock Campgrounds south of Monroe, Utah. I still have my dog tags! Which have my maiden name and state that I am a "Gemini".


July 1994: My cousin Roxanne & brother Robert in Castlerock Campgrounds south of Monroe, Utah. Look - I have my Rhythm Sticks! I still have those, but they're not as sticky as they used to be (ie. they're getting old and are a little harder to use) ... and I'm drinkin' the Country Time!


July 1996: Matt's first year coming to the reunion! This was at my Uncle Stan's in Richfield. I loved my Code Bleu shirts. Speaking of shirts ... Matt's wearing one of mine!


July 1996: My BFF Heather & BFF Matt at my Uncle Stan's in Richfield. Weren't water-weenies great? Until they broke. A couple other details from this picture .... that's my Brazilian Eye necklace that was supposed to ward off evil spirits. I would always tease people that since they were still around it obviously didn't work. Ouch - not nice of me! On my left wrist is my yearbook staff gift. A watch with our theme ... "The Power of One". Around my waist is my favorite-ever sweater. I still have it! It has so many holes in it, so I only wear it on special occasions. That's what happens when you sit on sweaters more than you wear them.

Clear Signs

I've been tagged ... Thanks Andrea!

No, really - this was actually pretty fun. Here is a picture with the contents of my purse, which brings up some clear signs.



The items include:

• Kleenex, Advil, Chap Stick and Halls - clear signs that I have a cold.
• Lotion, Chap Stick and Eye Drops - clear signs that it's winter.
• Library Card - clear sign that I went to the library today since it's not in my wallet.
• 27 Dresses Ticket Stub - clear sign I haven't cleaned out my wallet since 01/25/2008 at 7:10pm.
  
• Wallet and Cards - clear sign that I need to go to Home Depot and spend that gift card. Also a pretty in-your-face sign that I'm LDS right there on front!
  
• iPod, Flash Drive, and Cell Phone - clear sign my purse is stuffed with technology, and that it was 10:10pm when I took the photo.
  
• Chap Stick and Lipstick - clear sign this is my purse! I love that Cover Girl 12-hour stuff - fabulous!
  
• Sunglass Cleaning Cloth - clear sign it's winter, otherwise it would be with the sunglasses.
• Car Keys - clear sign that I cheated because my keys are never in my purse; they are always lost. (Ask poor Matt!)
  
• Primary Keys - clear sign that I took my purse to church on Sunday. Sometimes I just take the gigantor bag!
  
• Xocai Chocolate - clear sign that I knew I'd need a healthy pick-me-up to make it through work today and also a clear sign that I forgot all about them.
• Hair Things - clear sign that they're always around when you don't need them.

It is also very clear that two important things are missing from this picture! First, the purse itself which is a clear sign that I was very tired when I did this and I wasn't about to do it again to get my purse in the picture! Second, my camera! Which of course was taking the picture, but is an item that is never not in my purse!

Okay ... so now that I've done my duty I'm going to tag a couple people to give me some details on the contents of their purse! I don't really know who reads this thing!?!?!

I'll say tag to Heather and Janet ... love you guys! Also, I think Liz and Kirstie might stop by now and then .... so, tag!! I'll be watching!

Wow!

I promise I won't put more of these on here for awhile, but this clip is amazing! I watched Dil Se this weekend ... another Bollywood flick. The music was great, and this particular song, Chaiyya Chaiyya, is wow! I couldn't believe they were dancing on a moving train!

I read a little about it on Wikipedia: "It became popular quickly upon release and its music video gained the same status, partly because it was filmed on a moving train. In 2003, BBC World Service conducted an international poll to choose ten most famous songs of all time. Around 7000 songs were selected from all over the world. According to BBC, people from 155 countries/island voted. Chaiyya Chaiyya was nine in top 10 songs. Remixes of the song were used in the opening and closing credits of the 2006 film, Inside Man. A cover of this song was performed in episode 5 of season 5 of CSI:Miami. The choreography by Farah Khan is considered among the most difficult ever done; a few dancers sustained minor injuries. Its lyrics are notable for their use of religious (especially Islamic) metaphors to characterize love, including references to heaven, the Shahadah (Muslim declaration of faith), and a verse from the Quran."

How fabulous! I found a clip with English subtitles.

CTM

I'm so excited! Today I made my second attempt at preparing Indian cuisine by making Chicken Tikka Masala, or CTM for short.



It was so good and I LOVE the basmati rice. It has a wonderful smell and is yummy to eat uncooked. Wish I could find it in bulk for a good price. 2 cups for $5.00 isn't a good thing.

I really want to get a thali plate and some katori bowls sets. Aren't they cool? Then I could make Indian food and put it in beautiful traditional dishware. Fun, fun! I know I'm a geek.



Then I just need to learn how to make cucumber yogurt sauce and other curries and I'll be set!

Sunday

Saturday is a special day.
It’s the day we get ready for Sunday:
We clean the house, and we shop at the store,
So we won’t have to work until Monday.
We brush our clothes, and we shine our shoes,
And we call it our get-the-work-done day.
Then we trim our nails, and we shampoo our hair,
So we can be ready for Sunday!

Today I asked a friend of mine if blogging was an appropriate Sunday activity. I wonder if it can fall under the "writing letters to loved ones and neighbors" category?

Another Name

Sometimes we call our cat Slimey, in reference to Slimey the Worm on Sesame Street.

Compare this picture of Slimey to Goo's tail in the picture below. Can you see the resemblance? Yea?

New Weirdness

We thought we knew Goo pretty well, but he started doing something new and strange tonight.



Sleeping with his face flat down!

He's never done this before, but he did it three times tonight, and we couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Super Bowl

This post is probably a little late, but I wanted everyone to know that I watched the Super Bowl last week! And I enjoyed it!

We went to Wes & Lisa's. They have all the cool gadgets on their 62" TV. We started watching 30-minutes behind the real time of the game. When there were replays or BORING commentary, we got to fast forward.

Watching the Super Bowl was play after play after commercial after play. And it was perfect!

The Order

I finished this one today:



Just my luck! I got sick on Wednesday night (I thought I had my fair round of sickness in December, didn't I?) and this particular cold made me completely exhausted! I slept a lot. The last two days I slept, read, slept, read, etc.

Consequently I finished the second book. I won't read number three for awhile since my request is #103 at the library! I was bad and took a little sneak-peek on Wikipedia, and I don't think I'm going to like it.

I really liked number two. I thought it was very interesting, exciting, and enjoyed it more than the first. I didn't get creepy scared, either. I liked it enough that I will read the last one, but I'm not expecting much after seeing where things are going.

Gemma Doyle

So, I just finished reading this book.



Have you read it? What did you think?

I was alone when I finished the last 100-pages and I had the covers pulled tight around my back because I got scared. Did anyone else get scared?

I don't know how I feel about Pippa. I thought Kartik was interesting. Felicity was a little intense. Of course, I love all the stuff about India!

I've got the second book requested through the library, so I'll be reading that soon and continuing the adventures of Gemma Doyle. I also hear they're making a movie. Of course! Why not!

Something Fun

So, I've posted way too much tonight! But, I wanted to get this one last thing on here ... just a little something fun!

The most recent Bollywood movie that I watched was "Jhoom Barabar Jhoom", which either means "Dance Baby Dance" or "Sway Like This". Confusing, I know.

Here's a clip of one of the songs. This movie is very fun and energetic! Pretty much the plot of the song boils down to the fact that the girl took his ticket to Hollywood in exchange for keeping him out of trouble. He didn't know she was going to do this, and really wants it back. After saying "Ticket to Hollywood", there's a little background line in the song in which he's saying in Hindi, "Give it back." He gets pretty pouty.

I was SO EXCITED to see Abishek Bachchan dancing well. He dances horridly in Dhoom 2. Anyhow, on with the clip:

Freaky Affects

So, I got to experience a couple new things during December 2007.

First ... surprise! ... I got to have a root canal. Fun! I couldn't ask for anything better the week of my Christmas vacation. They deadened it for the procedure, and it stayed dead longer than any previous dental shot I have ever gotten! 7-hours later I could still feel the affects. This is my beautiful pirate smile that Matt laughed about when leaving the endodontist. So, we took a picture.



Second, my eye doctor said that if I had my eyes dilated that I could go 2-years on my contact prescription instead of 1-year. Sounds good to me! It was super-hard to take a picture of my dilated eyes, but here's a comparison. It was freaking Matt out for the rest of the day, each time I would look at him. My eye doctor told me the affects would last 2-hours. WRONG. 6-hours later it finally started wearing off.



I hope it's awhile (or never would be nice) before I have to do either of these again.

Politics

I've never been one much for politics. I think politicians are all crooked in one way or another. But, other people's firm and sometimes fanatical opinions on candidates are very interesting to me.

I have been more interested in the elections this year than in the past. And I'm glad to say that I did vote in the 2004 presidential election, which I hadn't done previously. I also will vote this year, even if it is difficult for me to decide between the two final candidates. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there will be one I feel good about, but regardless I'm determined to make a decision and support one of them.

Anyway, Matt and I saw this on our way home tonight at a car dealership in the area. Sorry for the crudeness of the photos. It's dark and the letters were moving.

This one says, "HILARY SCARES US":



Followed by, "BUY A 4x4 TODAY".

Followed by, "VOTE FOR ROMNEY":

Our House

I've had a few discussions with people lately about our house. The construction on it was such a huge part of our life that I sometimes forget that people don't know about what we did!

This is a picture of our house in late spring of 1997, before we tore off the roof (the roof of five chimneys) and added a second story.



This is our house in late spring of 2007. Trees sure grow a lot in 10 years! And you can also see the landscaping the city did across the street, compared to the dirt in 1997. So, I know it's hard to see the actual house for comparison.



Here is our house today. It's much easier to see it in the winter! It's on the same footprint as in the picture above, just the tower was added on the porch.



This was our house on June 20, 2002 when we were taking off the roof. The neighbors wondered if we'd had a fire. It was a miserable sight!

OK Corral

It has been 3-years since I left OK Manufacturing and went back to American Express. I started back at Amex on February 14, 2005. Wow!

Here's a shout-out to all my fellow OK Corral buddies, and a few pictures I have to bring back some memories.


Anny


Maris


Anny


Maris & Jerry


Jaime, Maris, Jerry & Anny